The tackle area has been a bone of contention in the English club game. Photograph: Paul Harding/Action Images

Emergency measures designed to make English rugby more spectator-friendly are being hurriedly introduced after high-level concerns about declining entertainment levels in the Premiership.

Premier Rugby, the body which represents the leading clubs, also says it is considering increasing the number of Premiership clubs from 12 to 14 from 2013 in an attempt to promote the domestic game to a wider audience.

The notion that the Premiership may need a little "sexing up" has been blithely dismissed in the past but a long, hard winter has prompted a rethink amid fears the on-field product has not been sufficiently enticing. "There was a determination that we couldn't let things go on as they were," said Mark McCafferty, Premier Rugby's chief executive, revealing that a summit meeting was held last month between club officials, directors of rugby, referees and Rugby Football Union representatives. Referees have subsequently been instructed to encourage more flowing rugby via stricter application of the laws at the breakdown, with the new approach being launched without fanfare at the weekend.

Sunday's free-wheeling victories for London Irish and Saracens would suggest the initiative is already having some effect and McCafferty today hailed the crisis meeting on 24 February as potentially "a seminal moment" in the history of the English professional game. For a league which likes to present itself as the toughest in the world, however, even the slightest admission that the Premiership was in danger of turning off fans represents a fundamental departure from northern hemisphere orthodoxy and will prompt intense debate among traditionalists and would-be modernisers.

The same concerns have been voiced south of the Equator for some time, with a similar edict urging referees to weed out ball-slowing killjoys and crack down on tacklers who fail to roll away being issued before this year's Super 14. SANZAR officials expressed concerns that excessive amounts of kicking and slow ball were impacting negatively on attendances and the game's financial health. With statistics showing the number of tries scored in the Premiership this season has fallen by 38% compared with the same period last year, the message cannot filter through soon enough.

This is clearly not a uniquely English problem – the 2010 Six Nations showed a 17% drop in tries compared with 2009 – and Premiership attendances have continued to rise by almost 20% this season, helped by the staging of several games in bigger arenas. Premier Rugby, even so, believes the next five years represent a "crucial" window of opportunity for professional club rugby and are keen to increase average gates from around 13,500 at present to 20,000 by 2015.

That level of growth will not be achieved if the quality of rugby on offer fails to impress the consumer, as was the case during the dour early months of the season. "It was a significant concern and we felt we needed to address it," McCafferty said. "Hopefully it is a seminal moment in terms of saying, 'For the good of the game we can't have the premier club competition churning out [rugby] which was rightly receiving poor comments.' We didn't want to change too much and there are other variables ... the weather is improving and the pitches are hardening. What effect it will have only time will tell but we'll take another look at the end of the season."

Further discussions will be conducted on the wisdom of extending the Premiership to 14 clubs, although the concept of promotion and relegation remains enshrined until 2016. "The sensible time to think about expansion would be in 2012 when we start negotiating new TV contracts," McCafferty said.

Following the admission of two Italian 'super-clubs' to the Magners League, Premier Rugby is proposing a tweak to the Amlin Challenge Cup, which it would like to see reduced from 20 to 16 teams next season with four fastest losers from the Heineken Cup entering at the knock-out stage. A decision on whether to increase the Premiership wage cap of £4m will be taken on 5 May amid complaints that the English can no longer compete with the wealthier French clubs in terms of big-name signings. This season only one Premiership side – Northampton – has reached the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup. But McCafferty said: "This time last year there was one French club in the quarter-finals. Things do turn quite quickly."

Argentina have moved a step closer to joining the Tri-Nations in 2012 after the International Rugby Board announced it is to underwrite the Pumas' entry to the tune of $10m (£7.5m) over four years.